Ventura County's war on street gangs is working. But it is far from won. A three-year clampdown by Ventura County law enforcement has slowed the spread of turf battles and indiscriminate killings that authorities say once threatened to become a scaled-down version of the carnage in Los Angeles County. Progress can be measured in a decline in the most sensational form of gang violence--the fatal drive-by shootings that plague Los Angeles.

Prompted by rising gang crime in unincorporated areas, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved creation of a special sheriff's gang patrol. The detail of two deputies, a senior deputy and a sergeant will track gang activity in the Ojai Valley, Fillmore and unincorporated communities near Ventura and Santa Paula at an annual cost of $792,000.

A round of arrests and convictions in recent months has landed 11 members and associates of Ventura's largest and most violent street gang in jail, a blow that police say cripples the ability of the gang to control the streets along Ventura Avenue. Authorities say gang activity surrounding the Avenue area has dropped significantly since the arrests, largely because many of those put behind bars are senior members of the gang.

Gabriel didn't flinch at firing shots at street gang rivals. He beat them bloody. He robbed his enemies, his neighbors, his own family. But now he says he wants to walk away from the gang life in Ventura County, and that decision has turned him into a target in the neighborhood where he was raised. After five beatings that have left the husky 18-year-old with a broken nose and bruised ribs, he is constantly looking over his shoulder. The attacks, his former friends tell him, are just a warning.

Police have arrested three alleged gang members who are suspects in a Sunday night drive-by shooting that left one Oxnard man critically injured and another with bullet wounds in his legs. One man from Pacoima and two juveniles were arrested Monday afternoon by Los Angeles police. The three, who were driving a gray 1979 Honda Accord that authorities say was used in the shooting, were transported to the Oxnard police station late Monday night.

Intensifying its countywide crackdown on gangs, a task force of Ventura County police agencies swept through Oxnard early Wednesday, arresting 11 suspected gang members and seizing an assault rifle and armor-piercing bullets possibly used in a drive-by shooting earlier this month. For the third time in less than a year, seven teams of officers fanned out across the city in a series of raids that started shortly before dawn.

A gunfight between rival gangs erupted during a birthday party in a quiet Thousand Oaks neighborhood just before midnight Saturday, leaving one teen-ager dead and three wounded, sheriff's deputies said. The brawl spilled over from a back-yard patio on Fordham Avenue to the parking lot of Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where keyed-up gang members confronted and threatened one another, witnesses said. About 40 sheriff's deputies were sent to the hospital to prevent further violence.

Five gang-related shootings in less than a week brought a citywide police crackdown this weekend, but even as officers spread out across the city there was a sixth attack. The surge of violence prompted one local leader to call for a gang summit and Mayor Manuel Lopez to call for community meetings to discuss the problem. Meanwhile, a funeral was held Saturday for Felipe Ramirez, 17, who was fatally shot Tuesday in what was believed to be a gang-related attack.

One is a Boy Scout, the other a godfather's son. One is a veteran street cop turned Ventura County prosecutor, the other a former Naval Academy cadet who entered criminal law to defend his Mafioso father in a Los Angeles racketeering case. The fast-rising Ventura prosecutor can boost his career by winning the longest and most complicated case in Ventura County history.

The National School Safety Center in Thousand Oaks advises school districts across the country on how to deal with campus crime, but it has had almost no contact with Ventura County schools. Until now. Simi Valley Unified School District officials called the safety center recently because of concern over the rising tide of violence in surrounding districts. "We've never met with them before," Supt. Robert Purvis said.

One is a Boy Scout, the other a godfather's son. One is a veteran street cop turned Ventura County prosecutor, the other a former Naval Academy cadet who entered criminal law to defend his Mafioso father in a Los Angeles racketeering case. The fast-rising Ventura prosecutor can boost his career by winning the longest and most complicated case in Ventura County history.

A Santa Paula gang member was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing a young mother during a botched robbery of her convenience store nearly three years ago. Several family members of another victim of Jose "Pepe" Castillo said at the hearing that his punishment is long overdue. Castillo, 23, pleaded guilty last year to shooting Mirna Regollar on June 2, 1998, while he and a friend were trying to rob her family-owned store.

Breaking years of silence, former skinhead Ryan Bush told jurors Monday he saw Justin Merriman rape, stab and bludgeon college student Katrina Montgomery to death in November 1992. Merriman raped Montgomery in a bedroom of his Ventura home and stabbed her in the neck after she attempted to leave, Bush said. "Katrina was begging for help," Bush testified through tears. "Justin got a pipe wrench out of a dresser. He told her to lay down. He put some covers down and he struck her on the head."

Five gang-related shootings in less than a week brought a citywide police crackdown this weekend, but even as officers spread out across the city there was a sixth attack. The surge of violence prompted one local leader to call for a gang summit and Mayor Manuel Lopez to call for community meetings to discuss the problem. Meanwhile, a funeral was held Saturday for Felipe Ramirez, 17, who was fatally shot Tuesday in what was believed to be a gang-related attack.

A round of arrests and convictions in recent months has landed 11 members and associates of Ventura's largest and most violent street gang in jail, a blow that police say cripples the ability of the gang to control the streets along Ventura Avenue. Authorities say gang activity surrounding the Avenue area has dropped significantly since the arrests, largely because many of those put behind bars are senior members of the gang.

Prompted by last weekend's shootings, scores of police officers from Ventura and Los Angeles counties swept into 11 residences occupied by suspected gang members Thursday in a continuing crackdown on gang activity that has terrorized a Newbury Park condominium complex.

The Ventura County district attorney's office has determined that people who wear gang-related attire can legally be excluded from the Ventura County Fair. But Ventura Police Lt. Steve Bowman, who asked for the legal opinion, said the department has not decided whether it will try to impose gang-related clothing restrictions at the fair, which runs Aug. 19 through 30.

Two members of a local gang called the Small Town Hoods were arrested Sunday night on suspicion of murdering a 20-year-old mother with a bullet meant for a rival gang member, authorities said. Scott Kastan, 18, of Westlake Village, and Patrick Strickland, 22, were taken into custody after surveillance of several locations by 14 Ventura County sheriff's deputies, Lt. Tony Ditzhazy said. The victim, Jennifer Jordan, was gunned down Friday night in the city's first fatal drive-by shooting.

It was Friday night when the first shooting erupted, as two carloads of El Salvadoran gang members blew in from Van Nuys and raked the Conejo Creek condominium complex with gunfire, reportedly killing one man and wounding another. By Sunday afternoon, more Van Nuys gang members had arrived, authorities say, this time opening fire on a group on their way to a memorial service for the dead man, Edgar Cruz, 19.

Members of a Van Nuys gang were being blamed Monday for the second shooting in one weekend here. On Friday night, two carloads of El Salvadoran gang members from Van Nuys raked the Conejo Creek condominium complex with gunfire, police said, killing 19-year-old Edgar Cruz and wounding Andres Morales, 18. Then on Sunday, gunshots rang out again in the parking lot of a Del Taco restaurant next to the condominium complex.